Global industrial battery demand and projections

Although many thought that the Li-ion batteries would displace lead-acid technology in energy storage systems in a quick glance due to the higher energy density, has not been the case in every market sector.
Otherwise, lead-acid is still on a growing demand for telecommunications, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), data centers, and the motive industry. As the U.S. Department of Energy mentioned on their article in 2020 named Energy Storage Grand Challenge: Energy Storage Market Report, “Global industrial energy storage is projected to grow 2.6 times, from just over 60 GWh to 167 GWh in 2030. The majority of the growth is due to forklifts (8% CAGR). UPS and data centers show moderate growth (4% CAGR) and telecom backup battery demand shows the lowest growth level (2% CAGR) through 2030”.

Source: C. Pillot, “Lead Acid Battery Market,” Avicenne Energy, Paris, 2019, unpublished. Extracted from “Energy Storage Grand Challenge: Energy Storage Market Report, U.S. Department of Energy, 2020.

As the market and new technology are being developed, energy has been able to be stored in a more space-efficient and light-weighted way, but the base characteristics of lead-acid batteries, have made them competitive and reliable throughout history. One of example of this can be seen in the forklift’s market. Lead-acid base composition make them heavy, allowing forklift producers to minimize the use of extra counterweights in order to carry heavy loads.
Lithium is still a highly dominant technology in the electric vehicle and home technology industry, but we may still have to wait until we are able to see an integral energy storage technological change.

References

• Ahmet Aktaş, Y. K. (2021). Chapter 5 – Solar Hybrid Systems and Energy Storage Systems. In Solar Hybrid Systems: Design and Application (pp. 87-125). Academic Press.
• U.S. Department of Energy. (2020). Energy Storage Grand Challenge: Energy Storage Market Report.